By Carter B. Horsley

This Latin American Art auction is highlighted by several superb works from the estate of Stanley Marcus, the famous retailer whose collection was also the subject of an auction at Sotheby's Nov. 16, 2002.

Lot 12, "Retrato Matriomonial," shown above, is a sensational oil on canvas by Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991). This extremely bright and vibrant work measures 31 5/8 by 39 3/4 inches and was acquired by Mr. Marcus from the Perls Gallery in 1971. It has a quite conservative estimate of $300,000 to $350,000. It sold for $273,500, including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article, to an anonymous buyer.

The sale was quite successful with 13 of the 50 lots offered in the evening auction selling, a respectable 74 percent. The evening sale total was $6,070,015 and records were set for five artists.

Another highlight of the Marcus group is Lot 9, "Retratro de Hombre," by Diego Rivera (1886-1957). This 32 1/4-by-18-inch oil on canvas was executed in 1916 and was once in the collection of Jacques Lipschitz. It is a superb Cubist portrait that has considerable monumentality. With its rich and dark palette and shading, it has great dimensionality and is reminiscent of the finest works of Juan Gris and compares very favorably with some of the best portraits by Cézanne and Matisse. Rivera lived in Europe from 1907 to 1921 before a falling out with Picasso and a return to Mexico where he became a major figure because of his great, proletarian murals. This fine painting has a conservative estimate of $350,000 to $450,000. It sold for $350,500 to a New York dealer and another Rivera, Lot 7, a still life from the same year and about the same size, sold for $405,500 to a Mexican private collector. After the sale, Kristen Hammer of Sotheby's Latin American Art Department said in an interview that the wonderful portrait may have sold for less because it was not signed.

Another Marcus masterwork is Lot 8, "Cabeza de Hombre," by David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974," a very powerful and painterly head of a man. The pyroxylin on copper measures 14 1/4 by 12 inches and is dated 1935. It has a very modest estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $95,600.

These three works are all museum quality.

The first 12 lots in the auction come from the Marcus estate and all but one sold.

Highlights of the rest of the auction include two fine paintings by Leonora Carrington (b. 1917), two good paintings by Matta (b. 1911), a major work by Claudio Bravo (b. 1936), two excellent works by Armando Morales (b. 1927), a very good painting by Fernando Botero (b. 1932), a panoramic vista of Iguazu Falls by Augusto Ballerini (1857-1897), a very sensitive oil portrait and a lovely ink on paper by Diego Rivera, two fine works by Gunther Gerzso (1915-2000), and two strong paintings by Carols Alfonzo (1950-1991) and a very handsome painting by Alejandro Obregon (1920-1992).

Leonora Carrington is one of the world's great Surrealist painters. Lot 17, "Paisaje de Venus," is a surprising bright and ethereal painting by her, a tempera on panel that measures 23 1/43 by 36 inches. Executed in 1954, it has a conservative estimate of $80,000 to $100,000. It sold for $89,625.

The catalogue entry for this lot by Susan Aberth notes that in 1954 Carrington executed several works with "archaic-looking sturues with slender and elegant columns that terminate in floral capitals" that served "as stage-settings for theatrical pageants containing human and semi-human entities clad in elaborate costumes." The entry continued: "Always interested in astronomy and astrology, the Passage of Venus could also be an allusion to the ancient goddess who presided over growth and the beauty of nature. At the time of this painting, Carrington's friend and patron, the British art collector Edward James, was constructing a surrealist sculpture garden in Xilita, a small village west of Tampico in Mexico. His vast estate, set in a tropical wilderness, was called Las Pozas (The Pools) after the many spectacular pools and waterfalls located there. Over the years, this collector turned creator, assembled over 36 architectural follies that a crew of local craftsmen made from cast concrete, patterned on his drawings. These dream-like structures were vaguely reminiscent of the imagery contained in the artworks he owned: he even named one Homage to Max Ernst. We know that Carrington visited Las Pazos and one is tempted to hypothesize on the visual results of their interaction."

A more typical Carrington, more mysterious and foreboding, is Lot 25, "Syssigy," a 22-by-19 3/4 oil on board. Dated in 1957, it has a conservative estimate of $80,000 to $120,000. It sold for $141,500.

Several of the figures are dressed in what the catalogue described as "rather fanciful Edwardian dress" and although it is a relatively dark interior scene several of them wear sunglasses "as if to protect their vision from the unfolding drama occurring between the elderly seated woman and the standing man on the right." "Garbed in a somber black robe, this bearded man clearly plays the role of the Magus. Clutching a staff in his outstretched right hand, he resembles Hermes Trismegistus, messenger god and patron of the alchemical arts. Mixing the humorous with the sacred, he holds in his left hand an uroboros (the figure eight sign of infinity), which dangles at the end of a string like a mystical yo-yo. In fact, according to Carrington, the title Syssigy is a made-up word that for her means 'mixture' and appears to be in some way derived from the term 'syzygy,' connoting a pair of connected or correlated things. Syzygy, like Carrington's paintings, has a multitude of esoteric meanings as well. In astronomical terms it is the perfect alignment of three or more celestial bodies, or it can refer to the conjunction of the sun and moon. In Jungian pyschology it describes the pairing of opposites such as male (animus)/female (anima) which he related to the alchemical conjoining of the sun and the moon that resulted in the birth of a new androgynous being. Finally, within the Gnostic tradition, syzygy is a complex notion that expands upon the dualism of body-spirit to incorporate the idea that we all have a Heavenly twin, a personal angel that represents our own perfected self. A ghostly mixture between a monkey and a sloth clutches the staff while peering inquisitively at its bearer, as it conjured forth that very moment."

Too bad Bosch is not alive. What a romance that would be!

Matta is usually grouped with the Surrealists even though his works are more fantastical and abstract and conjure luminous, distant worlds that often seem to be bursting with exotic energy. Lot 21, "Green I Want You Green (Vert Je Te Veux Vert), is a 1957 oil on canvas that measures 45 by 57 1/2 inches and has an estimate of $200,000 to $350,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $190,000. In this work, Matta's style resembles a bit that of Wilfredo Lam with spiky boldly delineated forms gathering at some glowing hearth.

Lot 24, "Scenario No. 1: Succion Panique du Soleil," is a quite different Matta, richly organic and sinuous. The 1937 crayon and graphite on paper measures 19 5/8 by 25 1/8 inches and has an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. It was exhibited in 1938 at the Exposition International du Surrealisme in Paris at the Galerie Beaux-Arts. It sold for $185,500.

Lot 33, "Composition," is a very good oil on canvas by Wilfredo Lam (1902-1982). It measures 63 1/4 by 51 1/4 inches and was executed in 1963. It has a modest estimate of $170,000 to $200,000. It sold for $163,500.

Lot 20 is a huge oil on canvas by Claudio Bravo entitled "Paquete Marfil." The 59-by-78 3/4-inch work was executed in 1967 and has an slightly ambitious estimate of $900,000 to $1,100,000. It sold for $1,439,500, the highest price realized at the auction, setting a new auction record for the artist that had been set at Sotheby's in 1999 when a "blue package" painting by the artist sold for $1,020,000. It was bought by an anonymous buyer. "It comes as a shock to many that the man who is arguably the foremost living 'academic' painter spent almost no time in the Academy: rather, working for hours in Madrid's Prado, he drew his lessons directly from the example of the Spanish Old Masters. In particular the subtle color effects of Velázquez and the almost mystical dynamism of Zurbarán impressed him deeply and continue to direct his work today," the catalogue entry for this lot noted. He would go on to paint portraits, but in the late 1960's, the catalogue continued, "he wiped the slate clean[and] elaborated a series of transcendent works that announced his shift away from the baroque, highly referential society portraits that had established his early career, and toward the purer, sparer art that would characterize Bravo's painting from this point forward. The series was a revelation, uniting the artist's exquisite technique with an inexplicable, otherworldly aura of mysticism.They were abstract paintings but perfectly realist: in the parcels you could touch the paper but the composition was completely abstract and the colors were taken from abstract painting.Bravo claims his inspiration for the series lay in the abstract paintings of Tapiès and Rothko.Critics have also noted affinities to the color field paintings of Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly. The point is not to exercise the imagination to conjure a concrete object behind the paper, but rather to allow it always to exist in that phase of becoming - incorruptable because unrealized."

Armando Morales has an admirable technique that employs a fresco-like blue-green-and-gray palette to great effect. Lot 22, "Selva Tropical, Decidua (Foret Tropical, Decidue)," is a 51 1/8 by 102 3/8-inch oil on canvas that was executed in 1992. It has an estimate of $350,000 to $450,000 and engulfs the viewer in a lush tropical forest. This enormous work has more browns than normal but the dense thicket of vines and trees presents a labyrinthine and marvelous place. It failed to sell and was passed at $270,000, perhaps reflecting its very large size.

More typical of the artist's style is the rather classical "Annunciation," Lot 36," an oil on canvas that measures 32 3/4 by 45 1/4 inches. Dated 1999, it is a highly original and very beautiful modern variation on an old theme and has a modest estimate of $50,000 to $70,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $32,500. When questioned about it after the sale, Ms. Hammer remarked that it had some "condition" problems.

Fernando Botero's inflated figures are always depicted with humor and affection and Lot 34, "Standing Woman," is a delightful oil on canvas that was executed in 1982. It measures 60 5/8 by 35 inches and has an estimate of $300,000 to $400,000 and was once in the collection of Richard L. Feigen & Co. It failed to sell and was passed at $230,000.

Lot 15, "Casamiento Indio," by Alfredo Ramos Martinez (1872-1946), a 30-by-34-inch oil on canvas painted circa 1934 sold for $405,500, breaking the artist's former auction record of $229,500 and considerably above its $175,000 high pre-sale estimate. This picture of a young couple handing hands was once owned by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Lot 2, "Novia de Tehuantepec," by Rosa Rolanda (1897-1962), a 30 1/4-by-24-inch oil on canvas painted circa 1950 said for $29,875 established a new auction record for the artist who was married to artist Miguel Covarrubias.

Lot 3, "El Lider/iradir," by Antonio Ruiz (1895-1964), a 12 3/8-by-8 5/8-inch oil on canvas laid down on panel sold for $317,500, breaking the artist's former auction record of $229,500. The painting was executed in 1939 and had a high estimate of $300,000.

Iguazú Falls is one of the world's greatest natural wonders and its astounding and dramatic breath is nicely captured in Lot 67, an oil on canvas by Augusto Ballerini. It measures 36 1/4 by 118 1/4 inches and has a very modest estimate of $15,000 to $20,000. It sold for $9,560!

The day sale of this auction has two fine works by Diego Rivera, Lots 76 and 85. The former, shown above, is a portrait of a man that is an oil on canvas that measures 18 1/8 by 15 inches. Dated 1911, it is a very strong and memorable work with a modest estimate of $40,000 to $50,000. It sold for $53,775. The latter, shown below, is an exquisite ink on paper of a woman with flowers. It measures 18 by 23 inches and has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It comes from the Stanley Marcus estate. It sold for $29,875.

Gunther Gerzso is a superb abstract artist. Lot 36, "Semblantes," is an impressive bronze that measures 23 by 30 5/8 by 2 1/4 inches. Executed in 1994, it is numbered 4/6 and has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It failed to sell. Lot 97, "Legendary Landscape (Azul Y Naranja)," is a fine abstract oil on canvas by Gerzso that measures 23 3/4 by 32 inches. Dated 1964, it has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $77,675.

Lots 143 and 144 are very striking paintings by Carlos Alfonzo. The former is entitled "Smiling Head with Green Eyes." An oil on canvas, it measures 24 by 18 inches and was executed in 1987. It has an estimate of $12,000 to $18,000. It failed to sell.The latter is entitled "Murano Waters" and is an acrylic on burlap that measures 60 1/2 by 43 1/4 inches. It was also executed in 1987 and has an estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. It failed to sell.

Lot 100, "Souvenir of Venice," is a very nice oil on canvas by Alejandro Obregón (1920-1992). The painting was deaccessioned from the Museum of Modern Art in 1984. It measures 51 /2 by 38 1/4 inches and was executed in 1954. It has a modest estimate of $40,000 to $50,000. It sold for $32,862.